Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Purchases 135,214 Shares of Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Key Points

• The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its holdings in Aflac Incorporated by 44.6% during the first quarter, owning approximately $48.78 million worth of shares.
• Aflac announced a share buyback plan allowing the company to repurchase 100 million shares, indicating management's belief that the stock is undervalued.
• The firm reported $1.78 earnings per share for the last quarter, beating estimates, despite a 19% decline in revenue compared to the previous year.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL - Free Report) by 44.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 438,668 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 135,214 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned approximately 0.08% of Aflac worth $48,775,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AFL. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. acquired a new position in Aflac during the 1st quarter worth $239,000. Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 0.9% during the first quarter. Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. now owns 27,764 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $3,087,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. Northstar Financial Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. Northstar Financial Companies Inc. now owns 9,914 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,102,000 after buying an additional 888 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG boosted its stake in Aflac by 23.6% during the 1st quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG now owns 44,377 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $4,934,000 after purchasing an additional 8,461 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Aflac by 4.2% in the first quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,137 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,016,000 after acquiring an additional 371 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James Financial dropped their target price on Aflac from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Aflac from $114.00 to $111.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Evercore ISI reiterated an "underperform" rating and set a $106.00 target price (up from $105.00) on shares of Aflac in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Barclays set a $98.00 target price on shares of Aflac and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $109.15.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.57, for a total value of $102,570.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 25,105 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,575,019.85. The trade was a 3.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of Aflac stock traded up $1.86 during trading on Thursday, reaching $108.60. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,124,094 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,202,663. The company has a quick ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market capitalization of $58.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.85. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $96.95 and a 12-month high of $115.50. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $103.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $105.03.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $4.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 15.08%. The company's revenue was down 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.83 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were paid a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Aflac's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.61%.

Aflac declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, August 12th that permits the company to repurchase 100,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

About Aflac

Aflac Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides supplemental health and life insurance products. The company operates through Aflac Japan and Aflac U.S. segments. The Aflac Japan segment offers cancer, medical, nursing care, work leave, GIFT, and whole and term life insurance products, as well as WAYS and child endowment plans under saving type insurance products in Japan.